Lot 187: William B. Cooper TN Portrait of Ann Eliza Cooper

William Browning Cooper (1811–1900), three-quarter length oil on canvas portrait depicting Ann Eliza Strickler Cooper (1833 – 1872), wife of Tennessee and U.S. Senator Henry Cooper (1827 – 1884). She is depicted seated in a Victorian chair, arms crossed, wearing an off-the-shoulder dark red velvet dress. Her hair is styled upswept, with ringlets framing each side of her face, all set against a landscape scene and painted corners mimicking spandrels. Unsigned. With a restoration specialist stamp on the backing. Housed in a heavily carved giltwood and gesso Rococo-style frame. Sight: 35 1/4 in. H x 28 1/4 in. W. Framed: 47 1/4 in. H x 40 1/4 in. W. Note: A portrait of Ann Eliza’s husband, Sen. Henry Cooper, is also included in this auction (Lot #186). Little is known of her family, but the couple married in Shelbyville, TN, in 1850 and had five children. Ann Eliza does not wear a ring in this portrait, suggesting it may have been painted shortly before her wedding. Artist biography: William Browning Cooper was born in Smith County, Tennessee. He graduated with honors in 1832 from the National Academy of Design in New York, thanks largely to the financial support of his older brother, fellow Middle Tennessee portraitist Washington Bogart Cooper. He also went to Europe in 1838, studying painting in Italy and France. Cooper returned to Tennessee about 1840 and worked in Memphis, Nashville, Columbia, Pulaski, and Northern Alabama. During and after the Civil War, he also worked in Kentucky. At various times, he also worked in Washington, DC, St. Louis, Chicago , Natchez, New Orleans and Little Rock. Cooper spent his final years in Chattanooga, but is not listed in that city’s business directories. He was struck and killed by a trolley in Chattanooga in 1900 and is buried in Macon, GA. (Source: The Tennessee Historical Quarterly: Vol. XLVI, Winter 1987, “Portrait Painting in Tennessee”). 

PROVENANCE: By descent in the family of the sitter. 

CONDITION: Painting has been professionally restored, relined, and stretched. Scattered paint touch-up throughout, largest areas to sitter’s chest, 2 inch x 3 1/2 inch, and upper right, throughout painted corner. See U/V photography. With light craquelure throughout. Frame with old repair to the upper left corner and with a minor loss to the frame liner, upper right.